


feel this chemistry

by littlehuang (boyfrendery)



Category: NCT (Band), WAYV
Genre: Canon Compliant, Fluff, Food ASMR, Friends to Lovers, Halloween, M/M, Minor Huang Ren Jun/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-01
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:02:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27057658
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boyfrendery/pseuds/littlehuang
Summary: Jeno invites Xiaojun to film a video with him.
Relationships: Lee Jeno/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun
Comments: 29
Kudos: 89
Collections: Challenge #2 — tricks; treats; and terrors





	feel this chemistry

**Author's Note:**

> back on my rarepair agenda for round two! thank you nct world for giving us xiaojen crumbs 
> 
> special shoutout to [rose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/divinerenjun) for looking over the earliest drafts of this fic + sam for beta reading and cheering me on. i wouldn’t have completed this story without you ♡

“It isn’t— it’s not a date!” Jeno huffs, tugging up his black face mask over his nose.

Doyoung seems not to care for the comment nor the growing distance between where he is—back turned, a few metres ahead on the sidewalk—and where Jeno currently is, bent over his foot in front of the convenience store. He jogs over and reaches Doyoung's side right when the stoplight changes colour. “Hyung, it can’t be considered a date if the people involved haven’t actually called it a date.”

Beneath the face mask Jeno can’t make out any of Doyoung’s features below his eyes, but he knows Doyoung, knows him well enough to recognize that the lift of his eyebrows is accompanied by a smirk. A shit-eating, _are you sure about that?_ smirk.

“I think it’s a date.” Doyoung wraps an arm around Jeno when they safely reach the sidewalk, tucking him close to his shoulder. “Whose idea was it? Yours? Brilliant, really, and so sneaky.”

“Not… well, yeah, I guess it’s sorta mine,” he says, shrugging. “One of the managers asked me to do a JSMR for Halloween with a guest. I suggested that Xiaojun join me.”

“Because you like him?”

There’s no reason for Doyoung to speculate; he’s fully aware of Jeno’s budding crush on Xiaojun. The prodding is only for him to relish in the pleasure of seeing Jeno flush with embarrassment. He can’t give Doyoung that satisfaction so easily.

“ _Because,_ ” he emphasizes while holding open the door for the SM building, “he was a natural at it on the variety show.”

“Sure.”

They make it up to the practice room without bumping into anyone along the way—something of a miracle given the fact that there are at least a dozen different NCT members running around at any point in time, especially with how close the upcoming album release is. 

“Okay. Since it isn’t a date, then,” Doyoung pauses. He takes the plastic bags from Jeno’s hand and pulls out a canned drink before walking over to the back of the studio and placing the bags on the floor, leaning against the speaker. “Make sure you ask him out after filming the video. Do you have his phone number?”

Jeno sighs. “No.”

“I can fix that. Here,” Doyoung says, extending his free hand and beckoning Jeno toward him. “Give me your phone.”

If it were a different member, Jeno would hesitate; he can’t trust this kind of sensitive information with just anyone. Matters of the heart are nothing to joke about and Jeno’s heart is a fragile, guarded thing, entrusted in the hands of few.

This isn’t any member, though: this is _Doyoung,_ his favourite hyung, asking him for his phone, and before thinking twice he obeys his order and passes it over.

Jeno watches attentively, crouching across from where Doyoung’s seated on the floor: Doyoung unlocks the phone, snaps a pic of the contents of the plastic bag, then types. With a familiar _whoosh_ a message is sent and he hands back Jeno’s phone with a pleased expression.

**Xiao Dejun**

_hi Xiaojun, it’s Jeno_ _  
_ _[Attached: 1 Image]_ _  
_ _got our snacks for the video :)_

Jeno stares at the screen. Despite seeing it all happen in front of his eyes, he’s in jaw-dropped disbelief.

“Now you have each other’s numbers. You’re welcome.” Doyoung takes a gratuitous swig of his drink and glances at the clock mounted above the studio mirrors. “Warm up your vocals. We can start in five minutes.”

When night falls and their practice comes to a close after the sunset, Jeno checks his phone and finds a notification from Xiaojun:

_Hey!  
_ _Is that candy corn?_

* * *

Jeno learns three things about Xiaojun over the course of two weeks:

The first: he loves mint chocolate. Jeno doesn’t learn this from Xiaojun himself—he watched the Make A Wish unit’s V Live with Renjun and witnessed how passionate Xiaojun can get about the flavour. 

The second: he uses a lot of emojis while texting. Not in the same way Chenle does when messaging in the Dream group chat, but _just_ the right amount of emojis to flourish his messages. Xiaojun isn’t shy to add a grinning smiley, or a laughing face, or, on that one occasion, a heart— _I love lollipops ♡ but not the strawberry ones lol_ —and Jeno can’t help but find that habit really endearing.

The last: Xiaojun binged all the JSMR videos in one sitting. Jeno’s both flattered and terrified when he mentions this a few days before they’re scheduled to film the video. It’s different when fans watch their content because it’s made for _them_ to watch, first and foremost, and he knows how much they enjoy his videos and miss them—that’s the main reason why he agreed to bringing back the series in the first place.

But knowing one of his colleagues watched not one of his videos, but _all_ of them, in one sitting? And not just any colleague, but the person he has a crush on? Terrifying information.

Yet when the day finally arrives, Jeno isn’t as nervous as he thought he would be. He’s spent the last fortnight texting Xiaojun every day—not seeing him much in person though, given the onslaught of Make A Wish performance schedules and his own practices for Resonance Pt. 2—and in those days a sense of closeness has grown so fast between them that it takes him aback just thinking about it. Really, when was the last time he clicked with someone this quickly? And more importantly:

“Why didn’t you link us up before, huh?” Jeno asks the morning of. “You’re at their dorm all the time.”

“Eh, never thought of it.” Renjun shrugs, poking around his bowl with his spoon. He’s rearranged the blueberries in his oatmeal several times since they sat down for breakfast, not bothering to take a bite. “Last time I was at their dorm was when I went with Chenle for Yangyang’s birthday. I… haven’t been visiting as much lately.”

Jeno doesn’t mention the unspoken _something_ that Renjun’s alluding to. It’s a sensitive topic. Instead, he scooches over and leans into Renjun’s side, rubbing his back. “It’ll be fine. He’ll come around soon.”

“It wasn’t even— never mind. You’re right. We'll talk when Xuxi's ready. Just gotta be…” Renjun shovels a spoonful of oats into his mouth. Chews for a few moments, thinking, then swallows. “Patient.”

“And when everything’s good again, the four of us can go on a double date. Deal?”

At that, Renjun smiles, a smear of blueberry across his lip. “Deal.”

  
  
  


Renjun ends up going with him to the SM building for a last minute practice before the From Home livestream that evening. His presence is a welcome distraction from the nerves that creeped their way into Jeno’s body as soon as he stepped into the van.

Jeno reaches the recording room first. It’s dusty inside when he turns on the light—probably hasn’t been stepped into since last May—so he takes the time to tidy up the room, willing himself to be calmer. His manager arrives a few minutes later, setting up the mic and cameras.

He’s arranging the Halloween treats on the table when he hears Mandarin coming from the hallway, bracing himself for the door to swing open.

“Wow,” Xiaojun whispers, in English, and Jeno knows he’s embarrassingly smitten with him because hearing his voice makes him too nervous to turn around. He forces himself to anyway.

“Hey,” Jeno says, trying to be casual. “Y-you made it.”

“Heard there’d be lollipops. I wouldn’t dream of missing this,” Xiaojun says, placing his bag on one of the chairs. The laugh Jeno lets out in response is a new level of uncharacteristic; it has their manager shooting him a pointed look, but before he can embarrass himself any further their stylist comes in and whisks them to another room to get ready.

* * *

“Try these.”

Jeno takes one of the lollipops from the plastic bag and offers it to Xiaojun, then brings the mic closer to Xiaojun’s mouth. Xiaojun unfolds the wrapper slowly, letting it crinkle into the mic.

Filming began half an hour ago and has gone incredibly smoothly, no major bumps in the road. Compared to the other content that’s posted on Youtube, filming JSMR is a very careful experience. It's less about entertaining the audience, more about the discovery—figuring out what sensations work and what don’t—and Xiaojun is completely in tune with that aspect of the process.

Xiaojun unwraps another lollipop. 

“Everyone,” he whispers into the mic, leaning close to Jeno’s side. It sends a flush of warmth up his neck, hopes it doesn’t show on camera. “Listen to this.”

Then he takes the two lollipops in his hands and bumps the candies together.

“Wahh, it’s so,” Xiaojun pauses, listening to the lollipops tapping together. The candies clank into the mic. “Crisp. Here,” then he offers one of them to Jeno—the strawberry one, he notices after popping it into his mouth, and he keeps a giggle to himself when he remembers why. 

They’ve gone through a variety of different candies: mini-sized chocolate bars, candy corn, gumballs that look like eyeballs. They bit, they chewed; Jeno sipped loudly into the mic when he drank the gone-cold pumpkin spice latte brought in at the beginning of filming. Xiaojun’s eyes widened with fascination when he poured pop rocks into his mouth, the fizzling sound sending a full-body tingle to both of their ears, and in the midst of their shared astonishment Xiaojun’s hand landed on Jeno’s thigh, palm sizzling hot through his skin.

The two of them turn to the camera, grinning and waving for the fans. “Thanks everyone for watching, this has been JSMR.” 

The manager cuts off the video, gives them a thumbs up, and then it’s over.

It was really, really fun, although Jeno realizes while cleaning that this context wasn’t ideal for getting to know someone. As a guest Xiaojun is probably the best he's had in the series; the Dreamies did their best, but the lazer-sharp focus that Xiaojun maintained throughout the video is admirable.

“Thanks for inviting me,” Xiaojun says, his hand brushing next to Jeno’s. “I wanna stay and help clean but my manager’s on my butt to head upstairs for a WayV schedule. I’m sorry.”

“No worries.” Jeno holds up the plastic bag of candy. “D’you wanna take any home? I’m bringing these back to my dorm.”

Xiaojun takes him up on the offer, shoving some into his bag. He unwraps a grape lollipop and makes eye contact with Jeno as he sticks it into his mouth.

When Jeno met Xiaojun for the first time (on stage, embarrassingly, while hosting for The Show), he was completely astonished, taken at first glance. He went home to the dorm and told Renjun about his encounter, who said “Dejun’s like that at first. He’s got a gaze like a hawk.”

He remembers this feeling again when Xiaojun winks at him with a close-lipped smile before leaving the room: too awestruck and frozen in place to chase after him.

* * *

In the days that pass between filming the video and it being uploaded, Jeno thinks about how he let an opportunity pass him by.

And maybe it’s eating him up inside that Xiaojun hasn’t said anything either. They’re still talking—less frequently than before, but daily still—and Jeno’s been silently sulking at the way his interest seems unreciprocated at the moment.

Jeno gets the post notification on the morning of Halloween:

**NEW from 채널 NCT DAILY  
**X💚JSMR | Halloween Candy, Fall Snacks (+with XIAOJUN) | ASMR

He’s about to click play on the video when someone knocks on his door.

“Hey,” Renjun says, kicking off his slippers as he sits on Jeno’s bed. “What’re you doing today?”

Jeno looks down at the thumbnail of the video. “Nothing. You going out?”

Renjun leans over, trying to take a peek at Jeno’s phone screen, but Jeno catches him midway and flips it over. Renjun smirks. “I’m leaving soon to see Xuxi.” He gestures toward the empty bed on the other side of the room. “Jaemin left early this morning to film a costume dance practice. I’m meeting up with Xuxi there.” 

“Oh, right. Wait, you’re fine with Lucas now?” Jeno hadn’t heard any updates about their fight. He’s surprised it carried on for this long.

“Yeah, we made up a few days ago.” Renjun shuffles off the bed, sparing a glance toward Jeno’s phone again before commenting, “Dejun’ll be there too, if you wanna come,” and closing the bedroom door.

Jeno looks at the thumbnail on his phone again, then over to his desk where a candy bar sits untouched. He makes sure to grab it on his way out.

  
  
  


The ride to the SM building is just long enough for them to watch the video.

“Hmm,” Renjun hums, sucking on a lollipop. “You do look good together.” On the screen, Xiaojun bites into one of the candies; Renjun winces and pulls out his AirPod.

“Still hate ASMRs?” Jeno asks, laughing.

“Hate ‘em. I meant it, though. You two look good. Nice chemistry together.”

Jeno continues watching with a smile, settling his phone in his lap, and when the video ends he can’t help but agree with Renjun. They do look good: Xiaojun dressed in his dark green corduroy shirt, opened to expose the white t-shirt underneath; Jeno in a beige sweater pulled over a plaid button-up; their contrasting hair colours—Xiaojun’s dishevelled bright yellow, Jeno’s green-blue—and complementary outfits; the silly axe headbands and orange and black pumpkin streamers hung behind them. It’s that thought that keeps his motivation high on the elevator ride up, nervous and excited, nearly bouncing on his toes to find the practice room.

The rooms they use to film dance practices are all located on the same floor. As soon as they step off the elevator, the sound of booming bass and faint whistling comes from the hallway to the left.

They appear at the right time, too. Renjun tiptoes to peer into the window of the door and says, “they’re almost done. It’s the bridge and— oh my god.”

“What?”

“Xuxi’s dressed as a lion. God, I’m never gonna hear the end of this from Yangyang. He already calls me a catboy.”

“What about Xiaojun?”

Renjun lowers himself to stand firmly on his feet. He moves to the side for Jeno to step forward, gesturing toward it. “See for yourself.”

And when Jeno _sees_ —he really, really can’t contain his laugh. He’s certain they would be able to hear his laugh from inside the room if it weren’t for the loud music playing through the stereo.

Lucas is dressed up as a lion—face paint and fur and all—but Jeno can’t really notice anyone else when Xiaojun is dancing in the center, shimmying his legs to the last chorus of Make A Wish in an inflatable T-rex costume.

Jeno doubles over, giggling, holding onto Renjun for stability because it’s hilarious. “He’s a dinosaur. He’s actually dressed as a dinosaur. How do you even dance in that thing?”

The music stops. Renjun looks through the window. “I think they’re done. They’re packing up the camera equipment.”

Jaemin comes up to the door (dressed as a Blue Power Ranger) and opens it up for them. He looks at Renjun and says, “Lucas is in the back corner,” then shifts his attention to Jeno. “You coming in?”

He’d initially planned on waiting outside for Xiaojun to come out—he doesn’t have boyfriend privileges like Renjun does to be barging in on a filmed practice like this—so he shrugs. “I’ll stay here.”

Jaemin nods. “I’ll tell Xiaojun you’re waiting.”

“Thanks.”

Jeno waits, bows to the staff as they exit the practice room. He greets the other members as they leave too, watching their backs as they retreat down the hall. Doyoung gives him an encouraging pat on the shoulder. Renjun quietly ushers Lucas out the door, leaving Xiaojun alone inside.

“Hi Xiaojun,” Jeno says. It’s croaky and doesn’t come out as confident as he wishes.

“Dejun,” he responds, turning around from where he’s hovering over his duffle bag. “We’re friends. Please call me Dejun.”

“Hi _Dejun,_ ” Jeno repeats, smiling. “I’ve never seen a dinosaur dance like that before.”

Xiaojun laughs, slinging his bag over his shoulder, then asks, “what brings you here?”

“I, uh—” Jeno fishes his hand into his jean jacket, digging up the candy. “Our video was posted today so I brought you something. Happy Halloween.”

“Oh,” Xiaojun says, taking the chocolate bar in his hand. “That’s… thanks. I love mint chocolate.”

“I know.”

Xiaojun looks at him—one eyebrow raised, puzzled—and Jeno doesn’t give him a chance to question it. “So uh, I was actually wondering if—” Jeno stops. Their eyes meet and Xiaojun's gaze carries a piercing seriousness that lights his insides up, pulse stopping; his nerves worsen, won’t settle down, but he knows he can do this. 

“If… if you’re free tonight, I’d like to go out. With you. On a date?”

Xiaojun doesn’t say anything, so Jeno repeats it again in a fit of worry. “ _If_ you’re free. It’s Halloween so I get it if you have plans—” 

“I don’t have plans tonight.” Xiaojun reaches out, taking Jeno’s hand in his and effectively shutting him up.

“Nice,” Jeno says, more to himself than to Xiaojun. He watches their hands fall between them, swaying as they walk toward the exit. “Are you free right now?”

“I have to go back to the dorm with Lucas and workout after but, uh,” he stumbles on his words as Jeno tangles their fingers together, flushes a sweet pink colour over his cheeks. “I can— I’ll—” 

“Text me when you’re done?” Jeno offers.

“Yeah.” Xiaojun tightens his hold of Jeno’s hand, brushing his thumb over his knuckle. “I will.” 

  
  
  


**Dejun ♡**

_So  
_ _You still have the leftover Halloween candy at your dorm?_

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> a couple notes that couldn't make it:
> 
> \- the fic's title comes from [candy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gmgcRWxhmqY)'s lyrics  
> \- in the first scene, doyoung is teaching jeno vocal exercises to improve his singing for a b-side on resonance pt. 2  
> \- lucas and renjun kiss and make up from their fight at [the wedding](https://twitter.com/renminrise/status/1320336291947446272) chinaline attended  
> \- xiaojen's first date consists of scary movies, candy, and cuddles :)
> 
> let me know what you think of these two! comments are greatly appreciated ♡
> 
> [twitter](https://twitter.com/boyfrendery) | [cc](https://curiouscat.me/boyfrendery)


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